Here's the problem with that logic: other people have them. Trust me, in a perfect world, people wouldn't have to use them or have them at all. Whether they are legal or not, people will still find a way to get their hands on one. I know when I need to fire at someone and I wouldn't do it unless my life or someone else's life were immediate danger. I live in a very rural area though and we don't have police. We have a sheriff's department spread out amongst several counties. I can't depend on them to show up before the worst case scenario happens. If a gunman is in my house, I can't do much of anything other than try to stall him. You can never know what is going through someone's mind. You can perceive what they might do, but in truth, if they are desperate enough to be wielding a weapon upon you, it's nearly impossible to tell what they are going to do. I wouldn't fire my gun at someone unless they were intending drawn or is in the process of drawing on me. If I should come across these types of situations, sometimes a weapon can be purely phychological, to deter them from doing anything further. The reason I have a gun is because I don't want to give someone that split second it takes to take my choice of life away.